and generally any surface that has had supports looks bloody awful.

In nearly 8 years of designing hundreds of parts and models I have never needed to use supports on an original design.

The only time I've had to use supports is when I've been reverse enginering a small widget or part to replace something in the house that's broken. Battery compartment covers seem to break and get lost pretty frequently, and are generally bastards to copy as they have really tiny bits sticking out at awkward angles. :-)

But when designing from scratch, there's usually away round using supports. Even breaking something into 2 or three seperate prints and assembling or glueign is usually preferable to a one piece print with supports. Well I find it so, anyway :-)